Bittersweet Goodbyes

These past few days and weeks have been full of goodbyes. Its sad and exciting at the same time. Sad because I will miss many friends and coworkers but also exciting because FINALLY the time has come for me to be with Luke and to be going back to Nicaragua!! :) I'm so ready for this time of separation to be over with and to be back where my heart is!

This past Sunday I said my goodbyes to people at my church, First Baptist Church Liberty City...dear brothers and sisters who I know have a heart for missions and who do pray for me and the work in Nicaragua.

I will also miss my 3 years olds in the Sunday School class I taught. And especially my friend Kristen, who I co-taught the class with...she has become such a close friend to me and I thank God for her!

This week I'll be saying my goodbyes to the kiddos at my school as well as fellow assistants and teachers. It has been a wonderful place to work and I've enjoyed it very much.

Some of the cutest things kids have said to me lately:

• "What does it mean, engaged? Is he your husband?"
• "Why so long?" (when I told them I'm getting married in December)
• "You can get married in February, that's shorter."

Tonight I'll be saying goodbye to my friends at Green Acres Baptist Church. This will be one of my hardest goodbyes I think. I have found such acceptance, comfort, encouragement, and genuine friendship in this group of people. And I've enjoyed helping out with the worship...what a blessing to be part of!

I've been and will be saying goodbye to family. I spent the entire day on Saturday with my Aunt Sarah. It was so much fun just to be with her, talk, shop, be spontaneous (yes, I can do that!), etc. :) I am looking forward to being with my grandparents this weekend also. And I'll get to see more relatives at my sister Karen's wedding in June.

I'm Engaged!!!

Well, when I woke up on Thursday, May 1st, it was going to be a normal day. Or so I thought!

It all began right after school when one of my co-workers handed me an envelope that said "THE AMAZING FACE" on it. My first thought was Luke's email that day saying he couldn't wait to see my amazing face (we were planning on using webcams and talking online that evening). Inside this envelope were instructions to go fill up the car with the money provided and there I would recieve the next clue.

And so I went on a series of missions where I got clues for each next step. Each task had a fun inside connection between me and Luke or some special significance to us. The last clue sent me to one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, The Jalapeno Tree, where I was instructed to be seated and order something to drink. The whole time I'm thinking Luke has got to be here! But it was too crazy...I never had had any reason to believe that he was planning any kind of surprise visit. But I just knew he had to be there at the restaurant.

The waitress came up to me and asked me if I was Miss Stewart and when I said yes, she handed me an envelope. It said something about congratulations on completing the competition but since you are not engaged or married here is your consolation prize money. I couldn't believe it....this couldn't be it!!! Luke had to be here! I kept looking around and was seriously on the verge of tears because I wanted him to be there.

Just as I was starting to cry and reaching for my phone to call a friend who I knew was in on this and demand where Luke was.......the love of my life came right up behind me and simply said "Ellen" (according to him, because everything was a blur to me). And of course I just completely melted and just kept hugging him. I kept telling him "You got me so good!!" Because he did! I love surprises!!! But I'm really hard to surprise and he knows it, so for him to pull this off was a huge thing! So for the next hour or so over dinner I put the pieces together of how he managed to get up here without me even having a clue!!! I seriously didn't even have a thought at all that he would come up here and surprise me.

After dinner we took a few pictures and Luke was acting really vague about what we were doing next. He made it seem like that was the big climax point and there were no plans from here on out. And of course in my mind I'm thinking "he's going to propose"...but I didn't want to get my hopes up so I kept making myself not think about it. But when he starts playing me a Keith Urban song on guitar with some of his own lyrics in there: "When I'm down on bended knee, will you say yes tonight?" then of course I was thinking "oh my goodness! he is!!!"

And he did...on one knee and all, he asked "Will you marry me?"

And I of course, said "YES!" A few moments later I think he was still processing what was going on and was like "What did you say?" at the same time as I was saying "Can you repeat the question?" Just cuz I wanted to hear him say it again. So I guess you could say we got engaged twice! Which was doubly great. :) Almost right away Luke wanted to pray together...it was just a sweet time of praising God for His leading in our relationship and also committing our future to Him. And after that we began telling our families and friends our exciting news!

So that's my story. If you want to read Luke's side of the story, you can go to his blog: http://lukerosenberger.blogspot.com/